'The Walking Dead': Andrew Lincoln says Rick will be 'in a completely different place' in season 4

There’s no doubt that Rick Grimes went a bit cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs after his wife Lori died during childbirth on The Walking Dead. Next thing you knew he was off seeing ghosts and avoiding his baby Judith as much as possible. But while Rick was not winning any father of the year awards last season, the man who plays him, Andrew Lincoln, says that parenting will come back into focus in season 4 — especially after son Carl went and killed a surrendering Woodbury teen named Jody in the season finale. “Certainly after the death of Lori, I think that a lot was brought into question, certainly in that last episode,” Lincoln said in the video interview below while taking a break from posing for the new cover of Entertainment Weekly. “And Andrea helped that sort of narrow his focus much more on his son, who is obviously in a very, very disturbed state toward the end of last season. And I think he has to take responsibility for that.”

But while Rick may strive to be a better father in season 4, those damn zombies and other nutjobs like the Governor keep seeming to get in the way. “You find him in a completely different place,” says Lincoln of Rick’s role. “And I do think that the struggle within him is still there, which is whether or not he should be a leader at the expense of being a father figure.”